Trying Helix

This is my first time using a terminal, “modal” text editor. I loved tmux so much I decided to try something else modal and in the terminal to edit server configs etc.

I looked into Vim, NeoVim, Emacs (which originally caught my eye with Org-Mode) but they all proved to be too fiddly to get working quickly, and VSCode is fine for my use cases. This is all true of Helix too, but it’s the new kid on the block and I decided to give it a try.

It’s fine. I doubt that I’ll need 1/2 of its capabilities (or 1/8 of Vim’s) but it’s usable enough. Especially since it supports mouse mode, which is a thing I had never considered for a terminal program.

I do wish it would support something like vim’s :ab abbreviations to make writing posts easier, but supposedly that’s in the pipeline and I’ll get it eventually. It’s a new tool after all.

The main thing touted about this style of editor is that you never need to leve the keyboard, or even the home row. Personally, I already stick to the home row since I’m rocking a 60% keyboard. You’re never gonna convince me that hjkl (not even proper home row placement) is better than my setup with WASD for arrow keys (when holding caps lock).

Maybe if I was stuck using a corporate laptop and managing servers all day I’d consider using an editor like this more. Until then, I think I’ll stick with nano.

PS: Did you know you can pipe stdio into some editors like Helix and VSCode? I didn’t - I might keep helix around just for that so I can manage logs a bit better.

Until next time.